Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old Age Pension and Intra-Household Allocation in South Africa

38 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2000 Last revised: 13 Jul 2022

See all articles by Esther Duflo

Esther Duflo

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD)

Date Written: December 2000

Abstract

This paper studies whether the impact of a cash transfer on child nutritional status is affected by the gender of its recipient. In the early 1990's, the benefits and coverage of the South African social pension program were expanded for the black population. In 1993, the benefits were about twice the median income per capita in rural areas. Over a quarter of black South African children under age five live with a pension recipient. My estimates suggest that pensions received by women had a large impact on the anthropometric status of girls (it improved their weight given height by 1.19 standard deviations, and their height given age by 1.16 standard deviations), but little effect on that of boys. In contrast, I found no similar effect for pensions received by men. This suggests that the household does not function as a unitary entity, and that they efficiency of public transfer programs may depend on the gender of the recipient.

Suggested Citation

Duflo, Esther, Grandmothers and Granddaughters: Old Age Pension and Intra-Household Allocation in South Africa (December 2000). NBER Working Paper No. w8061, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=254022

Esther Duflo (Contact Author)

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